# LaTeX Multirow Multicol Table Coloring

### Inspiration

Number of two-digit numbers not containing the digit ‘8’.

### Code

• The standalone class can’t be used with \caption.
• *{8}{c} means 8 c.
• >{\columncolor{cyan}}c gives the column color. It \usepackage[table]{xcolor}.
• \rowcolor{cyan} overrides the column colors.
• \cellcolor{white} overrides the above two commands. It has to be carried out one-by-one without any fancy package.
• \multicolumn{n}{<alignment>}{content} defines a multi-column cell.
• \multirow{n}{*}{content} defines a multi-row cell. It \usepackage{multirow}. It can’t contain \multicolumn.
• \cline{i-j} draws a horizontal line above the row from column i to column j.
• No fancy way of coloring multirow cells without fancy packages.
• \multirow{-9} at the last row creates a cell spanning nine rows from bottom to above, so that its content won’t be covered by colors of former rows.
• \rotatebox[origin=[clr]]{angle}{content}: rotate content by angle anticlockwise with [clr] as the rotation center.
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htbp]
\centering
\caption{Sample \LaTeX{} multirow table}
\vspace*{1ex}
\label{multiprogram}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|*{8}{c}>{\columncolor{cyan}}cc|}
\hline
\multicolumn{2}{|c|}{\multirow{2}{*}{}} & \multicolumn{10}{c|}{unit digit} \\\cline{3-12}
\multicolumn{2}{|c|}{} & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 \\\hline
& 1 & &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  \\
& 2 & &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  \\
& 3 & &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  \\
& 4 & &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  \\
& 5 & &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  \\
& 6 & &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  \\
& 7 & &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  \\
\rowcolor{cyan} \cellcolor{white}
& 8 & &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  \\
\multirow{-9}{*}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{90}{tens digit}}
& 9 & &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  &  \\\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}


Result:

### Adaptations for MathBot on Discord

Unluckily, this bot doesn’t allow multirow and xcolor in tables. The same code might fail another time that you try it. Discord has gray background, so the black foreground color isn’t quite visible. The table touches one boundary by default.

After some searching, I’ve chosen the TikZ method: draw a long line above and below the table, so that there would be enough space around the table. It’s important that

1. we apply a [scale=0.9, draw=none] so that the dimensions are too large for the compiler. Otherwise, the bot would fail. We added draw=none so that the long line won’t show up. After some trial and error, the scale factor 0.9 gives optimal results.
2. there’s a pair of empty lines to separate the table with the two tikzpicture.

I have to abandon all instances of \multirow and hard-code the vertical text in the leftmost column.

\pagecolor{white}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.9, draw=none]
\draw (0,0) -- (\textwidth,0);
\end{tikzpicture}